//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 - In Which Spike Really Hates A Certain Scroll // Story: The Chronicle of Spike: Rise of a Hero // by QuillVolt //------------------------------// Normally, Spike loved all kinds of books. Living with a certain Twilight Sparkle for most of your life will do that to a dragon. If your house also just so happens to be a library, then all the more reason to. Fiction and nonfiction. Genres of all kinds. Fantasy, adventure, sci-fi; even the occassional romance novel if he was bored. Reference books were good sources of new information, especially since he was already way ahead of anypony his age in academics. However, if there was any kind of literature that Spike absolutely loathed and/or detested, then it would have to be the kind that results in Apple Bloom and he being chased through an unexplored part the Everfree Forest by a pack of possessed Timberwolves. Yeah... he really hated those kinds of books. Or scrolls. Or anything that resulted in what he just said. He already lost track of how long they were running, but he was pretty sure that he couldn't set his own lungs on fire. He also wasn't entirely certain if his legs were still attatched to his body. Don't be mistaken; he was by no means out of shape. Anydragon who can't keep up with teenage Cutie Mark Crusaders (and that doesn't include the new recruits) won't last very long. Conversely, he was no athlete either, as a certain cyan pegasus enjoys pointing out. Thank Celestia for dragon endurance. On the other claw, his partner was one of the most physically fit ponies in this part of Equestria, short of her siblings. And even then, they didn't have years of crusading to further condition them. But Apple Bloom couldn't keep this pace up indefinitely. As it was, the Timberwolves were already gradually catching up. These Timberwolves were unusual, and not just because they didn't seem to tire. For one, their bodies were kind of gnarled and overgrown, like the wood had been twisted and decided to start sprouting twigs and leaves again. And somehow, despite all that, they were also fireproof, or at least fire-resistant, since his firebreath had no effect at all! Oh, and did he mention that they were spewing out malevolent purple smoke? Or that their eyes were eerily glowing the same color? In retrospect, the last two probably should've given it away. "AB, wheeze there's a pant break in the wheeze trees pant ahead!" Spike gasped. Hopefully that means that we're almost out of the forest. Then these nuisances should leave us alone. Apple Bloom just nodded, far too winded to even think about replying. She did, however, deliver a swift kick to a Timberwolf that had gotten way too close for comfort. Spike took note that it staggered briefly before resuming chase, but it actually looked a bit worn out compared to the others. Interesting... No time to dwell on that, though. They were almost clear of the trees. Spike and Apple Bloom burned the last reserves of their energy for a last burst of speed. The two of them emerged from the forest... and found themselves in a small clearing before a wooden barricade. If either Spike or Apple Bloom had any breath left, they would've started swearing enough to shock Twilight and Applejack back in Canterlot and Sweet Apple Acres respectively, before the two of them would come galloping and bust clean through the pack of Timberwolves with a wagon-load of soap in tow. The sound of growling reminded them that they weren't alone. Spike and Apple Bloom turned around to see the Timberwolves skulking into the clearing. They backed up into the blockade as the wooden wolves advanced. This really wasn't a good time for a flashback, but Spike can't believe that this was all this started because of that stupid scroll... ... [Two Days Earlier] As the light of the sunset washed over Ponyville, bathing the town in a brilliant orange hue, everypony was beginning to pack up and go home to relax after another day of work and spontaneous musical numbers. Nopony paid any attention to the piles of burnt timber or the shallow trench caused by a young dragon dragging himself across town. Spike, scorched and bandaged, groaned as he hauled himself back to the Golden Oaks Library. What was the reason this time? Earlier, a certain trio of Cutie Mark Crusaders had decided to try being firefighters. It's a really good thing dragons are fireproof. Some ponies offered looks of sympathy and gratitude, some with pity and understanding. Several made attempts to help, but the young dragon assured them that he was fine. He is used to this after all. Ever since they became teenagers and still hadn't gotten their Cutie Marks yet, their crusades have gotten exceedingly more painful. For him. They were fifteen now, but it wasn't just the three of them anymore. True to her word, Babs Seed, Apple Bloom's favorite cousin, had started her own Crusaders back in Manehatten. Word got out about the two branches, more and more ponies started supporting it, a bunch of other branches formed, and eventually the Cutie Mark Crusaders became an Equestria-wide organization. Before long, tons of colts and fillies, early achievers and late bloomers alike, rushed to sign up. The starting three - Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo - had their hooves full with helping out the new recruits from their Ponyville chapter, keeping in touch with the other branches, and having their own adventures, but they've managed somehow. As far as Spike knew, there were only a few graduates who had received their marks so far, but it seems like everypony was having a lot of fun. It's also fortunate that the newbies aren't as eager to try out some of the crazier crusades Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo take part in. Spike could barely handle keeping the three of them safe. At least AB is nice enough to patch me up every time I get hurt, Spike thought as he dragged himself inside. And the apple pies she makes for me afterwards are almost worth the pain, especially since she's gotten much better at baking. Though I guess she's had plenty of opportunities to practice considering how often she needs to treat my injuries. Spike sweatdropped before pulling himself to stand on all fours. A short time after he had separated from Twilight, Spike had apparently gone through some sort of growth spurt. Nothing like his last one or the one before that; it was supposedly natural this time. A bit unexpected, though. Twilight theorized that the sudden influx of a massive amount of her magic at his hatching may have possibly somehow affected and/or altered his biological structure in various ways. Not to mention that his environment could have further influenced this change. Obviously, one was his rate of growth. Even without the whole "greed" factor, he still should've experienced an extremely slow rate of natural growth spread out over his extensively long lifespan. Any other forms of rapid development would require the dragon to give into his greed, though Spike had done no such thing. If anything, it's closer to a pony during puberty - well, only in terms of voice changing/cracking (which had mostly stopped by now) and physical growth and minus some of that more awkward junk. Besides, the growth spurt had ended right when Spike was a few centimeters short of the average stallion (much to his irritation) when he was quardrupedal. His arms had grown more than his legs, and he eventually resorted to walking around like a quadruped. He could still go around on two legs and was considerably more dexterous than most ponies, but for the most part it was easier to get around on all fours. His spines had gotten longer and sharper as well. Something that also differed from the previous times was the new addition: a pair of medium-sized, pale-emerald colored wings. Though he couldn't do much with them aside from some gliding at the moment. But the one thing that he enjoyed from this development was that he had started to outgrow his hatchling features - which he had long since gotten tired of - and was beginning to look more like his age. Granted, in dragon years seventeen was still within the infantile range, but he was raised by ponies, who develop significantly faster. In addition, he is the adopted son of Princess Celestia and served as the assistant/occasional caretaker of Twilight Sparkle for most of his life; so even by pony standards he was mature despite his age. A brief shower to get rid of the grime and scorch marks, and Spike felt much better. He went up to thei-his room and collapsed onto the bed, sighing contently. ... ... ... ... Four years. In a few days, it will have been exactly four years since that day. He's stronger, faster, and smarter than ever. He can't be called a "baby dragon" anymore. The experience of four years of his own adventures and having his own exploits have taught him very well. And... still not enough. There were still too many questions left unanswered for his liking. How did his egg come into the possession of Princess Celestia? When did it happen? Where did he come from? Why were most dragons rapacious, greedy jerks? What made them that way? And most importantly, who was he, Spike, really? Spike had decided that if was ever going to be able to keep his promise, the fastest way would be to find out his history and learn from it. Unfortunately, his search for answers has yielded more questions than answers. The selection on dragons in the tree library was mostly biased and/or heavily exaggerated; and the few that weren't only told him things he already knew. The closest thing there was to a dragon expert around was Zecora, who would often enlighten him with tales and tomes from her homeland. While that did help him find out more about his kind, much of what he had learned only served to further increase his frustration. It was mostly through the folklore and ancient history that he learnt of a lost civilization of dragons that existed before Equestria was formed. Their way of life was rather similar, though less ponified and more dragonlike obviously. They also interacted with all sorts of species, but a quite a few of them were rather hostile. Most of them, friendly or not, were now more or less extinct, or at the very least few in numbers. Those that weren't, like the moles, lived in faraway countries in some part of the world. It revealed to him that dragons weren't always the way they were now. Somewhere along the timeline, there was an event that caused them to regress back to their two most basic of instincts: survival and hoarding. Something was telling Spike that finding out what caused that would help him discover more about himself, though he had no idea why. But even in Canterlot's Royal Library, there was very little to nothing about that particular time period. Spike grumbled under his breath. If he hadn't found that, then he'd very likely be at a loss right now. A glance outside the window confirmed that the sun was still in the process of setting, and since neither his mother nor aunt had messaged him, he had some free time. He sprung to his claws and stretched. He walked to Twilight's old desk and pulled out an old-fashioned scroll from one of the bottom drawers. It was wasn't exactly in bad condition, but he was still very cautious with unfurling it. Once it was securely set up on the desk, Spike extracted a pair of reading glasses from another drawer and sat down to read. The previous week, he had discovered a hidden panel in the wood of the tree and accidentally tumbled into a slide that led to some sort of secret study deep underground. His landing wasn't the best (he actually slingshot out of the slide and into a shelf, kicking up dust and knocking down several priceless volumes from their perches), but he too excited about exploring a new area. Spike briefly paused from his reading to wonder if Twilight had known about that room. Then again, it was downright impossible that she would ever neglect the welfare of books. If she did know about it, the two of them likely would have spent an entire week cleaning up and restoring some of the more run-down tomes. It was pretty dark down there, so he chanced a very minuscule flame. With that little light, he managed to examine wall lined with racks holding multiple scrolls. He barely managed to make out a dragon symbol/insignia on one and decided to grab it, resolving to come back with something brighter and less likely to cause a fire. There were probably other stuff down there he could've gotten instead, but it wasn't like he could tell the difference anyway in that darkness. Climbing back up was a a pain (he hadn't found any other way out aside from where he entered; and it was not easy scaling a Celestia-knows-how-long slide in the dark, even with claws), but before he could sit down and study his find, one of the new Crusaders, a red unicorn colt named Ruby Shards, had come to get him at the to help out with some crusading that a certain trio were partaking in. Thanks to that, Spike now knows that he's only mostly resistant to blacksmith tools. The next day, or rather night, Princess Luna had summoned him to the castle for his weekly tutoring session. And because he was already tired from helping out around Ponyville (why so many ponies needed assistance on the same day, he had no idea), he had fallen asleep the moment he got home. And the day after that, he had to fill in for Cherilee for some of the classes again. Then the next day, he went on a herb-picking hike with Fluttershy before "secretly" delivering Rainbow Dash a new romance novel. The day after, he helped Rarity and Ruby (who had taken interest in designing and making clothes) at the Boutique. And there was the crazy limbo-dancing, leaf-blowing, and something-else-unrelated party Pinkie had thrown. Then the day after that... You get the point. Applejack had been nice enough to let Apple Bloom help out around the library for the week, though Spike suspected it was mainly to keep her out of trouble. Either way, it was nice having somepony to come home to after a long day. Wait, that came out wrong... Anyway, today was the first chance he's gotten to examine the scroll. Everything was taken care of and nothing/nopony/nodragon was on fire. Apple Bloom had already gone home for the day. He was not going to let this chance go to waste. "It seems like this scroll was written by one of the former proprietors of Golden Oaks, possibly even the original owner," Spike muttered. "Research notes on the ancient dragon civilization. Should've figured she was a scholar too. Explains why a library comes with living quarters and a kitchen. "Apparently this is merely one of a series of notes, but this particular piece seems to be focused on something called the 'Dragon Temple'. A lot of stuff's been written down though. Might as well start at the introduction. "Let's see... blah blah blah dragons and junk, something about ancient spells and treasure; blah blah... hmm? Forbidden secrets for ultimate power? Nope, that's not it. 'One Hundred and One Tasty Gem Recipes'? Tempting, but no. Maybe later. "Trampoline science, actual notes on the Dragon Temple, more distractive topics for idiots who don't read the entire introduction... wait a minute!" It occurs to me that I am using a rather outdated form of record keeping, though I must admit that no other medium quite has the same scholarly feel that I am trying to capture with these scrolls. On the other hoof, I suppose it would be easier to use a journal or some other bound book for this purpose, but... ... skipping ahead a bit... Ah! Not again! I cannot fathom why I wasted that much ink justifying my usage of scrolls to a scroll! Again! Focus Stargazer, focus! Deep breaths now... Concentrate on your research! Whoever this "Stargazer" was, she(?) sounded an awful like somepony he knew... Getting back on track, this time my research focuses on the structure known as the Dragon Temple. It would be the dragons' equivalent of our Canterlot Castle. However, whereas we have a monarch-figure like Princess Celestia, the dragons do not seem to believe in consenting to being subjugated. Instead, the Temple was home to some of the most powerful dragons at the time. They were the masters of their respective elements (see scroll Dragon Elements). They served as the peacekeepers and the protectors of the land: the Guardians... In addition to being the base of the Dragon Guardians, the Temple seems to function as a school for certain dragons as well as being a sanctuary to those who needed one. It is also said that the Temple housed one of, if not the greatest libraries in existence, whose vast storehouse of knowledge is still unmatched by any other book repository to recorded in our history. Sadly, during the event known as the Great Regression, much of the ancient dragon civilization, including records on the location of the Dragon Temple, were lost. The dragons vacated the land, traveling to various corners of the world and taking with them the remaining knowledge of their former civilization. After that, the ponies, griffons, and several other species settled into the lands. During my quest for knowledge, I had discovered that not all remnants of ancient dragon society might not be erased from Equestria. There are still many dragons residing in various parts of the country, and the Great Dragon Migration passes through every year. Could it be possible that the dragons are closer than we thought? One of the items of interest here in Ponyville (where I have come to at the request of my Princess) is the enigmatic Everfree Forest. The Everfree Forest has many mysteries revolving around it as well as dwelling within, and it has yet to be fully understood - if it ever will be, that is. Many attempts to chart out the area have been made, but the deep forest is elusive as expected. I myself have attempted this feat, but all I am able to report is that powerful magic is at work. Every time I arrive at a particular location, something prevents me from continuing and I can never remember why. It is very potent indeed, for it had taken some time for me to realize that I was under the effects of a spell in the first place. Within this portion of my notes, I have included a map that I have created to the best of my ability. With it, somepony should at least be able to find the center of the spell, taking into account that they are not affected by it as I was. "'... Although, I cannot help but wonder if that; rather than somepony, should it be somedragon? - Stargazer, Librarian and Keeper of the Golden Oaks Library.'" Spike finished reading languidly. He would've been more excited, but he was just too tired. He yawned and glimpsed out the window, before doing a double-take. The sun had already begun to rise from the horizon. Just how long had he been reading? Judging from the melted candle stub he must've subconsciously lit, all night. A single sheet of paper was fell from the scroll, but Spike took no notice of it. Before he could even think about uncovering mysteries of the past, something else took precedence. Something of far more importance that must be done as swiftly as possible. Namely, snack time. But first, a quick nap. After that, he'll go into town and rustle up some supplies for a journey into the deeper parts of the Everfree. Then he'll spend the rest of the day preparing before getting a proper night's sleep so he could set out early the next day. ... [Present Time] He had no idea that Apple Bloom would follow him, or that the Timberwolves would ambush them which would lead to an excruciatingly long chase through the Everfree. He also had no way of knowing that these Timberwolves would be stronger than usual and resistant to fire. Oh, how he envied the him of the past. So carefree and eager at the prospect of an adventure. "This isn't exactly what I had in mind..." mumbled Spike. He and Apple Bloom were surrounded now, and the barricade had prevented any further retreat. "If it makes ya feel any better, this ain't what I imagined either," Apple Bloom replied. At least the two of them had somewhat managed to catch their breath, as the wooden menaces had decided to take their time cornering them. Great, maybe they could politely ask the Timberwolves to leave the two of them alone over the sound of themselves being torn apart. "Sorry I dragged you into this mess AB." "It's fine Spike. I'm the one that decided to tag along without askin'." "..." "..." "Hey, Apple Bloom? There's... there's something I wanted to tell you for a while now. And I don't think I can put it off any longer." "Y-yeah? What is it?" "It's been weighing on me for a while now, and I didn't think it would've been this heavy. What I'm trying to say is that... "You're standing on my tail." "Huh?" "Yeah, one of your hooves stepped on it while we were backing up and it's kind of uncomfortable." "O-oh. Sorry." Apple Bloom nearly facehooved. Who uses that kind of delivery to tell somepony to move their hoof? Though she did shift a bit to let Spike retract his tail. "Hey, what's that?" "Huh?" This time Apple Bloom really did facehoof. They were practically muzzle-to-muzzle with mortal peril and he chooses now of all times to develop a short attention span? Spike was staring off into the forest, and apparently the Timberwolves noticed it too. Apple Bloom decided to take a look for herself. There was something orange speeding towards their direction. At first she thought that it was her sister, then she remembered that Applejack thinks that she's with Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo at Zecora's; not gallivanting through the Everfree with Spike. Whatever it was, it was getting brighter. And... warmer? Spike apparently recognized it, because he grinned and yelled, "AB! Close your eyes!" before shutting his own. Apple Bloom was slightly confused, but closed her eyes anyway. There was a whoosh and a feeling of intense heat in front of her, followed by a cry of pain from one of the Timberwolves. She heard Spike laugh beside her and tenatively opened her eyes. The Timberwolves had backed up a few meters and were now wary of... something. In front of her, there was a fireball hovering above a pile of ashes and burnt wood. The fireball dispersed to reveal a small orange bird with red-tipped feathers on his crown, tail, and wings. Tiny luminescent flames danced in the air around him. "Is that... Peewee?!"